Seven Times Through Respect
by Jemennuie
Summary: The evolution of Bellatrix's and Rodolphus's relationship, painted through seven kisses they have shared. Complete.
1. Beginning

****Disclaimers: The story icon is borrowed from Makani on Deviantart. As far as this story itself, I don't own the characters of Bellatrix, Rodolphus, etc.

**The First Kiss**

_Beginning_

The ball's dancers were twirling smears of color effortlessly weaving through blurs of lace and silk. By the lavishly decorated table of appetizers—the gleaming silver trays of cavier, the peachy pink of carefully crafted shrimp cocktails, the alternating slices of pale yellow and white cheeses- Rodolphus stood with his brother, their deep brown eyes both idly shifting between different members of the crowd.

"Andromeda Black is in my Ancient Runes class you know," Rabastan murmured in the conspiratorial tone characteristic of aristocrats' small talk.

"And where may she be at this fine gathering?" the elder brother politely inquired, knowing full well that his brother was merely exerting the effort necessary to subtly segue onto the topic of Bellatrix Black.

"Why, she's standing with her two sisters, directly opposite of us." Rodolphus darted his eyes in the direction of the trio as subtly as he could, catching sight only of a blonde, a brunette, and a woman with long black hair in his brief glance. "I do believe Father was discussing the Black daughters recently, was he not?"

"You are quite correct," Rodolphus replied succinctly. His younger brother had not actually been there for the discussion, and was thus most likely full to the brim with curiosity, but for now Rodolphus was going to decline informing him of the topic conversation. His younger brother already knew that the Blacks were an influential, wealthy, pureblooded family; he would eventually realize the immediately adjacent connection between a wealthy, pureblooded girl around their age and marriage. Arranged marriages had long disappeared from aristocratic culture but the forceful suggestions of parents had not and, as Rodolphus had no interest in any specific girl, he saw no reason to oppose his parents' subtle exaltation of Bellatrix Black as the perfect wife.

"I shall return briefly," he informed his brother with a nod of his head before striding across the room. Bella, who had noticed Rodolphus's swift glance in her direction, watched him with a detached, haughty air as he approached. After sweeping into a half bow, he turned toward the eldest Black sister and spoke, "Miss Black, if I may request the honor of a dance." She scrutinized him a few seconds longer—the slight curve to his outstretched hand, his erect posture, his squared shoulders. In sum, he was holding himself exactly as any proper pureblood should. Her parents had already been pushing her towards him as a potential suitor, and if this was the proper course of action for a proper pureblood like herself, then she would follow it.

With a stoic expression on her face, she wordlessly offered her hand and they swept onto the dance floor, joining the crowd of seamlessly interweaving colors. Neither of them spoke, until the dance had finished, at which point Rodolphus thanked her for a lovely dance, brought her hand to his lips, and lightly kissed it.

…

A/N: Written for femme fetal's Seven Kisses Challenge at the HPFC. Each chapter will be one kiss between Bellatrix and Rodolphus, hopefully updated daily. Feedback and constructive criticism always appreciated!


	2. Wedding

**The Second Kiss**

_Wedding_

The room was small and cramped, the polished mirrors and blinding lights on every wall doing nothing to dispel the claustrophobic feeling induced by the clutter--the bobby pins, the satin white ribbons and stretches of lace, the half-opened jewelry boxes spilling their shining ornaments of silver and emeralds onto the lacquered wood tables.

"You're so beautiful, Bella," Narcissa sighed, gathering her sister's shining black locks at the nape of her neck.

"The most beautiful bride there has ever been," Andromeda added, beaming as she handed Narcissa a few bobby pins enchanted with disillusionment charms. "And ever will be," she thoughtfully added after a few moments.

Trying to keep from wincing in pain as Cissy pulled her hair a bit too tightly, Bella smirked in response, "I'm certain that you two will prove more than able competition for that honor."

"But that's ages away," the blonde haired girl sighed again, her grip on her sister's hair loosening slightly.

"Only four years. I wouldn't say that's ages," corrected Bella, in the knowing, confident tone of older sibling. "Or at least four years until you graduate, and then you'll probably marry that summer, like I'm doing."

"I suppose," she sullenly replied.

There was a polite rapping at the door, and a moment later Rabastan Lestrange entered the dressing room. "I think the ceremony's due to start soon. Whenever you're ready, Bella."

Andromeda, the beginnings of a mischievous smile on her face, tapped Rabastan on his shoulder, before adding in a teasing voice, "You're not supposed to be here."

"I'm not?" he replied with mock horror, before sweeping into a gallant bow and grinning, "But how then, pray tell, am I supposed to tell you how absolutely lovely you look today?"

The middle Black sister gave a girlish giggle. "I meant, no one's supposed to see Bella before she steps out for the ceremony."

His face graced by a glowing smile, he continued, "Then there's not a problem, is there? Because how on earth could I look anywhere else in the room when I'm blinded by your radiating beauty?"

Her hand over her mouth, Andromeda poorly attempted to hide another pleased giggle as she swatted Rabastan's shoulder. "You are an awful best man, leaving your brother to prepare all on his lonesome. You best return and inform him that Bella is almost ready."

Narcissa gave a knowing smile to Bellatrix in the mirror, and with a slight inclination of her head towards Rabastan and Andromeda, mouthed "They're going to be at the altar next." Bella had to agree, even if the dull jealousy in the pit of her stomach kept her from expressing the belief in a manner similar to the joyful smirk now gracing Narcissa's face. Why couldn't Rodolphus express the same sort of uncontrollable, elated joy at seeing her? Compliments easily, sincerely spilling from his mouth, so much so that it almost bordered on a lack of propriety? Even as she was walking towards the altar, Rabastan looked more overjoyed to see Andromeda as a bridesmaid, than Rodolphus did to see her, his future wife.

The minister started reading the ceremony, while Rodolphus's gaze shifted between the audience, their families, the minister himself, and his future wife. He supposed she really was quite beautiful, a commanding, haughty look gracing her face as she immovably kept her eyes fixed directly in front of her.

"You may now kiss the bride."

They had kissed a handful of times before, in the subtle, quiet courtship that had led up to the extravagant wedding, and Bella felt another one of those chaste pecks brush her lips as the audience applauded.


	3. Loss

**The Third Kiss**

_Loss_

Andromeda burst from the fireplace in a cloud of smoke and ashes, tripping over the neatly laid stones as she stumbled into the room. Her brother-in-law whipped his head towards the source of the commotion, and frowned slightly at such a disrespectful entrance. Really, it was downright rude to not warn someone in advance when one was going to be floo-ing directly into their living room.

"Bella's at St. Mungo's," the words spilled from her mouth in rush of visible worry.

Seeing Andromeda's distraught state over his wife was enough to cause at least a small rise of worry on his part but, determined to play the part of the ever proper pureblood, he constrained himself from displaying any emotion, instead drawling, "She is probably there for a visit to the doctor. Pregnant women require a good amount of checkups."

"But that—that's just it—I mean—just—you have to come," Andromeda inarticulately stuttered.

With a slight crease on his forehead being the only hint of his emotions, he followed his sister-in-law to the hospital, tracking her swift footfall as she wove through the hospital's corridors.

Bella was lying upright in a bed, the drawn windows and starched sheets giving no hint as to why she was there, why her face was pale and pulled taut, why Narcissa was biting her lip and tightly squeezing her sister's hand. The two younger Black sisters exchanged a dreary look, their eyebrows knit together, before silently leaving the room together, and the click of the door handle found husband and wife together, alone.

The silence between them was even more oppressive than the sweltering summer heat, the pungently clean odor of hospital equipment and dismal shades of grey that masked the small hospital room. Her sister's hand gone, Bella was left to grasp at the sheets, twisting them around the palm of her hand and her fingers in an attempt to have something to hold onto. She refused to look at her husband.

Finally, realizing that his wife was not going to start the conversation, Rodolphus spoke, "Are you okay?"

What could she say? On what level? She gave a small movement of her head and wrapped the sheets more tightly around her hand, squeezing the small bundle of fabric so tightly her knuckles were turning white.

Rodolphus stared at Bella, still unsure as to what he was supposed to do or say in a situation like this. "Is the baby okay?" There was a shuddering intake of breath on Bella's part, and Rodolphus felt a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Is the baby okay?" he repeated. "Is he okay?"

A few miniscule words left Bella's mouth, too quiet and inarticulate to reach his ear. He didn't want to ask for her to repeat herself, though; instead he just felt a sudden urge to leave the room, to be as far away from this situation as possible, because then maybe it wouldn't be happening. That reprieve was denied from him, though, as she spoke again in a barely audible whisper. "We lost him. The—the Healer says I won't be able have children anymore. " For the first time, she shifted her gaze from the emptiness in front of her to her husband, a pained look etched into every line on her face.

He staggered backwards, as though the words were a physical blow. No children? No heir? Some part of him knew that Bella needed him at this time, that if he were a stronger man he would have held her hand and told her that everything was going to be okay, but as it was, the loss of an heir was a reeling blow and he numbly left the room, images of a lost future colliding painfully with when she had first come home, glowing with joy over the news that she was pregnant. He had swept her up in his arms, a shining smile across his face as he promptly kissed her.

If he was a stronger man he would have saved that kiss for now.

...

A/N: I can now say for sure that this is going to be updated daily until I finish, so check back soon! Also, reviews are always appreciated :)


	4. Betrayal

**The Fourth Kiss**

_Betrayal_

The very sharp rapping at the door was insistent enough that it was starting to remind Bella of a woodpecker. Swiftly swinging the door open showed one Rabastan Lestrange, who spilled into the room at the sudden movement of the object he had been knocking against.

"Rodolphus is at work," Bella informed him, regarding her brother-in-law with a rather cool air at such disruptive behavior.

"I'm not here to see my brother," he hurriedly spat out.

"Andromeda's not here, either," Bella added, well aware of the relationship between him and her sister.

"It's you I need to talk to," he hastily replied, anxiously clasping his hands together and squeezing his fingers against each other. "It's about Andromeda. You have to talk to her. She's—she's—she's lost it!"

"Explain what you mean," she said with a coldly puzzled tone, ushering her brother-in-law into the sitting room.

"She's—she's leaving—just going—says she'll--says she's—she's going to live with the Muggles!" he incoherently sputtered, the horror of such an idea clearly incapacitating his normal speaking abilities.

There was a sudden seizing pain in Bella's chest at the accusation and, ever defensive of her family, she venomously spat, "That sounds like a bald-faced lie."

The expression on Rabastan's face became even more horror stricken, and he intently leaned forward, looking rather like he was ready to fall to his knees and beg. "No, no, you have to believe me! Why would I lie? It's—it's about the war and—and that Mudblood, Tonks. I don't know what sort of lies that slimeball has been feeding her, but whatever they are, she's swallowed them, and now she's leaving—leaving!"

An expression of horror started likewise forming on Bella's face. Tonks. _Tonks_—the Mudblood prefect that Andromeda sometimes did patrols with. And Cissy had mentioned that Andromeda was spending less time in the Slytherin common room, less time with Rabastan despite the fact that their marriage, scheduled for directly after graduation, was quickly approaching. The pieces fit. Rabastan had to be telling the truth.

"Please…please talk to her…" the younger Lestrange was pleading now, his face buried in his hands and his fingers desperately grabbing at strands of his hair.

Bella felt a weight in the pit of her stomach again, jealousy that Rabastan could love Andromeda so passionately when she had to wonder if Rodolphus would even care if she left. "If Andromeda's already left, then it's hopeless," she hollowly stated. "That sort of news spreads like wildfire. She's ruined. She'll never be accepted back by pureblood society."

"But—I—I don't care, I just want her back," his voice cracked on the words.

"She's ruined!" Bella snapped, feeling a surge of annoyance at his stubbornness. "Tainted! You'd wreck yourself associating with her."

"I don't care," his muted words came, leaving her to gape at the man in front of her. He didn't care? How could he not care? He actually loved her enough to risk complete ruin! The ball of jealousy in the pit of her stomach was joined by a dose of dull rage coursing through her veins and a sort of clawing pain in her chest at the thought that such love was even possible, for she had never come close to be on the receiving or the offering end of such a phenomenon. Such a sensation was simply unimaginable.

She was pulled from her thoughts by another sound coming from Rabastan's direction, and she realized with a start that he was crying. Crying! It was beyond all social conventions for a man to cry, much less to do so in public, and the dull jealousy in her veins intensified until it seemed as insisting and unending as the beating of her heart, until it crowded out every thought in her brain, until she thought she might be going mad.

Almost in a trance, she roughly approached Rabastan and pressed her lips against his. His whole body tensed with shock, and his eyes flew open to recognize who was kissing him before, a hesitating second later, he closed his eyes again, and awkwardly put his hands around her waist.

Bella wasn't sure what she had expected, only that she had had some sense that it must be wonderful to be on the receiving end of such love, that such love must be contagious and easily applicable to all people, the equivalent of pure bliss. But the kiss did not taste like bliss. It did not taste like elation or joy or ecstasy, it tasted only like the salt from his tears, like betrayal and guilt and Rodolphus and the constricting feeling that if she did not look like Andromeda he would not be kissing her.

And so she pressed her lips against his more firmly, hungrily, searching for that speck of happiness that must be there somewhere, but still all she could taste was tears and treachery and shame and sin and remorse and taint and ruin and Rodolphus Rodolphus Rodolphus until she couldn't take it anymore and she roughly pushed her husband's brother away and informed him that she thought he ought to leave.

Almost as though he was unsure exactly what had just happened, Rabastan uneasily stood up and left for the door without a backwards glance, while Bella watched his retreating figure and decided that settling for something less than the sort of extravagantly outrageous love Rabastan displayed was not settling after all.

When Rodolphus returned from work later that day, his wife was sitting expectantly in the entry room blankly staring directly in front of her. A single glance at him told her all she wanted to know. "You heard about Andromeda. The blood traitor." He didn't reply, didn't add anything to her succinctly stated facts. "Well?" Her last word echoed in hang in the air, an echo against the cold, hard walls.

" 'Well' what?" he finally replied.

A controlled, haughty glance was shot in his direction. No possibility of heirs, and now the Black family fallen from grace due to the blood traitor's actions. "Are you leaving me?"

It was now that Rodolphus managed to find the strength he could not after her miscarriage, approaching her and gently brushing the long black strands of hair away from her face. "A respectable man does not leave his wife under any circumstances," he stated, and Bella felt a surge of guilt for doubting him as he lightly kissed her forehead.


	5. Respect

**The Fifth Kiss**

_Respect_

The night was a million shades of black--the endless curve of the sky, the empty shine to the closed shop windows, the dark grey of the street's cobblestones, the inky blackness of their robes. All that was disturbing the scene was the shooting streaks of light coming from the Auror's wand.

"Bloody Death Eaters!" one of them bellowed, sending a wave of flames from the tip of his wand. Almost immediately, the same Auror gave a gasp, a wide-eyed look appearing on his face as he started clawing at his neck. Within a few moments, the cause of his behavior was clear: it looked as though some invisible being was lifting him into the air, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and slowly choking him of any air.

"I would watch your mouth if I were you," Rodolphus heard his wife's crooning voice from behind a mask as the choking Auror was dragged higher and higher into the sky by the invisible beast; he had to admit that that was quite an impressive piece of spell work, something he had never seen before, nor would have even thought Bella capable of.

Another Auror, who had been left for unconscious on the side of the road, was making slight stirring movements, moaning softly and putting a hand to his head. Amused by his feeble attempts at motion, Rodolphus decided to give the man an illusion of a fighting chance, and watched with a slight twisting of his lips as the Auror staggered to his feet. The sight of the other Auror being invisibly suffocated was enough to jerk the second Auror into a more alert state, though, and with a swipe of his wand he sent a spell tearing towards Bella's back.

A sudden movement on Rodolphus's part was enough to deflect the spell towards one of the surrounding stores and, with the sound of shattering glass and flying splinters of wood, a fire started ripping through the tinder-like building. With a scream from the floating Auror as he plummeted several meters, Bella whipped her head towards the sound of the commotion, rapidly shifting eyes taking in the details of the scene.

"I'll take care of him," Rodolphus stated, earning a nod from his wife. He kept his gaze turned in her direction for a just a few seconds longer, admiring her spell work as a scream left the Auror she was cursing, before returning his attention to the shaking Auror who had just attempted to attack Bella. With a broad wave of his wand, the Auror went crashing against the wooden exterior of one of surrounding buildings. "Attacking someone when their back is turned? Tsk, tsk, what improper battle conduct," Rodolphus lazily reprimanded him while menacingly strolling towards the terrified man. "I think a Cruciatus would be proper punishment, don't you?" The Auror was soon screaming, his ear-splitting shrieks of pain endlessly bouncing off the buildings, magnifying the sound. Almost as though they were synchronized, screams started echoing from the direction of Bella's Auror, before she abruptly cut them short.

Her job finished, Bella lazily levitated the still form of her Auror to the center of the empty road before leisurely strolling towards Rodolphus and the still-screaming form of the other Auror. For a moment the screams stopped, and she could hear the low reverberations of her husband's voice. "Now if that Cruciatus was for poor battle conduct, how should I punish you for trying to attack my wife?" The Auror incoherently sputtered a few terrified phrases before there was a rush of green light, and the Auror was thrown to the ground, spread-eagle. Behind her Death Eater mask, Bella regarded her husband with an almost perplexed look on her face. _For attacking my wife_ he had said; that almost seemed to imply that he actually cared.

"Oh, hello, Bella," Rodolphus greeted her with a mildly surprised lilt to his voice upon seeing her. "I see you've finished with your Auror. Shall we return home, then?"

They returned to their house only a few hours after having first departed, only a few hours after Bella had first stated that she wished to accompany Rodolphus on his Death Eater outing. He now found it unbelievable that he had hesitated to grant her wish, that he had thought she might be too weak, too fragile, too colorless when Black blood powerfully coursed through her veins.

He had never felt such a level of admiration and respect for her before, and when she removed her mask to reveal a face shining with sweat, a few dark strands of hair plastered to her aristocratic features, she had never looked as beautiful to him as she did in that moment. And she, who had never been on the receiving end of such respect before, who had never felt that Rodolphus truly cared about her before, could not tear her gaze away from his similarly sweat-slicked face.

It would have been hard to say who kissed who first.


	6. Loyalty

**The Sixth Kiss**

_Loyalty_

The days in Azkaban seamlessly flowed from one to another, a massive shroud of dust that obscured any passage of time until there was nothing but the tainted prison air and the smudges of cinderblock; the noxious cloud that was Azkaban infiltrated all thoughts and memories until Azkaban was all there was and all there ever would be.

When there was the loud _bang!_ of the door to the cell block being opened, and the prisoners started yelling, Bella assumed that the prisoners were simply being rowdy at the daily delivery of food, as they always were. It was only when the shouting didn't quickly die down, when there was not the customary yelling of the guards for the prisoners to shut up, that something started to seem amiss. The prisoners' shouts quickly amplified in volume, and instead of the characteristic dreary hollowness, there was almost—dare she say it—_joy_ to their voices.

In a desperate attempt to see down the endless aisle of cells, she pressed her face to the cold steel bars, sliding one arm and her shoulder slightly beyond the periphery of her cell to gain an extra centimeter of vision.

BANG! There was the sudden sound of grinding stone, of more yells and shouts that, this time, did not seem to stem from the prisoners.

An authoritative voice boomed, "In the name of the Ministry, stop whe—" before being abruptly cut off in a sort of strangling sound. Excitement was coursing through her veins as she eagerly pushed her face even more firmly against the metal bars out of an attempt to see what was happening. A few sparks of light tore down the corridor, alerting her to the presence of wands. Wands! Not even the guards were allowed to carry wands! Her breath caught in her throat as an uncontrollable, almost maniac-like grin split her face. Something was different, something was changing; Azkaban was no longer the unending shroud of greyness that it had always been.

More sparks of light and muffled _whump _sounds followed by comparatively quiet cracking sounds continued to ring out on the other end of the cell block, and a uniformed Ministry guard went flying past her cell, before crashing into a wall and crumpling into a still pile.

"Death Eaters!" another commanding, sweeping voice boomed over the sound of the shouting prisoners. "Fellow Death Eaters, make your presence known!" The yells of the prisoners became a deafening roar as they all simultaneously realized what was happening: it was a prison break.

"The Dark Lord has returned, the Dark Lord has returned!" Bella screamed at the top of her lungs, throwing her arms through the cold metal bars of her cell in a desperate attempt to alert the invading Death Eaters of her location. But now the entire cell block was doing that, waving their pallid, bony arms. She felt an uncontrollable surge of hatred boil up within her. Many of the prisoners were not Death Eaters, much less loyal Death Eaters, and here they were attempting to profit from the break-in, as though they were deserving of being released! "I am The Dark Lord's most faithful servant! I!" she let out a piercing shriek that was barely audible over the din. A uniformed, masked Death Eater, swept up the dingy aisle of the cell block, passing her without so much as glancing her direction. She had been missed. Missed! The Dark Lord's most faithful servant, and they had not even noticed her!

She let out a sustained screech as another Death Eater passed, and violently lunged against the bars of her cell, earning her the half centimeter necessary for her bony fingertips to just brush the Death Eater's robes. After a sudden start on the Death Eater's part, he whipped his head towards the offending cause and let out a surprised yelp, "Bella! You—er—look different. Lovely as always," he hastily added as he approached her cell.

Quickly scanning the Death Eater's appearance, she took in a few loose strands of blonde hair and, almost as though unsure of her ability to recognize people anymore, stated, "Lucius."

"_Don't say my name_," he hissed in a low whisper. "_I_ still have a reputation to protect."

"Reputation, reputation! That won't matter now that the Dark Lord's risen, all that matters is our service to him!" she ecstatically gesticulated, pacing her cell while Lucius started waving his wand in a complicated pentagram in front of her cell. "He has risen has He not?"

"Yes, yes, He's risen," came the impatient response.

"How far has the Dark Lord risen? Has He conquered the Ministry yet? Has the world been purged of that Mudblood filth yet? What year is it?" she eagerly panted, the questions haphazardly spilling out of her mouth in an unquenchable stream.

"It's 1995. And if the Dark Lord had taken over the Ministry, do you think we'd be blasting away prison guards left and right?" he dryly responded. With an anticlimactic creaking sound, the door to her cell swung open, and she gingerly crossed the threshold that had been restraining her for the past fourteen years.

Without missing a beat, they both ran to meet up with another nearby Death Eater in the process of cracking open another cell. "Rabastan," she stated the prisoner's name as he left the cell, and vaguely wondered what she looked like, if her brother-in-law's appearance was so ragged as to be practically unrecognizable. All four of them tore down the cell block's corridor, dozens of faces flying past their line of vision as they attempted to cover as much ground in as little time as possible.

There was the sound of stone suddenly being pulverized into fine grains of sand as a spell flew over Bella's head. Her eyes whipped towards the direction of its origin and noticed only grey stone, grey walls and grey cell bars, before catching sight of a prison guard with a vicious look on his face and a trickle of blood coming from his temple. Her hands itching for a wand, but otherwise helpless, she yelled "Lucius, you missed one!"

"Don't say my name!" he roared, before vindictively sending a green beam of light towards the guard.

Immediately sprinting towards the guard's fallen form, she snatched up the dropped wand and delicately cradled it between her fingers, before returning to the growing party of Death Eaters. She had not acted a minute too soon, for a mere second later another small crowd of guards stormed into the cell block, sending haphazardly aimed spells towards the would-be escapers and their liberators.

"We break through them and leave!" Lucius bellowed to the small crowd of Death Eaters they had managed to assemble.

"No," Bella contradicted him with a deadly tone to her words. "We don't have everyone yet."

"The Dark Lord's orders were only to free as many as possible. The longer we stay, the higher chance that we'll be captured and lose everything," he spat as he sent another ray of green light towards the attacking guards.

"We are not leaving without my husband!" she yelled. They had freed those cretins like Mulciber and Dolohov, those who had abandoned the Dark Lord when he fell, who had lied about their loyalty to the Death Eaters in an attempt to avoid prison, and yet they were preparing to leave without Rodolphus?

"If you go to search for him, you do so alone, because if we break through the guards, we're leaving, with or without you," Lucius sneered, shooting another aggravated glance towards the advancing guards.

Without another word, Bella tore off in the opposite direction, away from the guards the other Death Eaters were battling and towards the heart of the prison. There must have been dozens of voices crying out, hundreds of cells lining the walls, thousands of cell bars blurring in her vision, yet all she could hear was her yelling Rodolphus's name again and again, and all she could feel was the burning pain shooting through her legs and her lungs as she ran faster than she had ever ran before.

Would she even recognize him? It had been fourteen years since she had last seen him, fourteen years since they had exploded into the Longbottoms' house to investigate the whereabouts of the Dark Lord. Even then, when Rabastan and Crouch had accompanied them, it was still only Rodolphus who was truly loyal to the Dark Lord, only him who completely believed her fiery conviction that the Dark Lord had not fallen, only him who was not ready to admit defeat as they repeatedly cast the Cruciatus curse on the two Longbottoms.

They had been at the Longbottoms' for several hours, and the morale in the room was steadily sinking, unpleasant looks shared between Rabastan and Crouch suggesting hopelessness and admitting defeat, when Rodolphus had lightly put a hand on her shoulder and stated, as true as simple as any basic fact of life, "We're not wrong, Bella. The Dark Lord has not fallen.

A rush of gratitude and hope had welled in her heart as she turned towards her husband, draping her arms around his shoulders and bringing her mouth close to his in preparation for a kiss.

It was at that moment a loud _bang!_ tore the door off its hinges and Rabastan was suddenly thrown bodily against the wall, left to crumple into a pile by the baseboard. Her and Rodolphus broke the embrace before it could even occur, but it was too late; the element of surprise had given the Aurors the upper hand and they ultimately lost that dual. But they had still walked into Azkaban with their heads held high, proclaiming their loyalty to the Dark Lord, and now, now they had been proven true.

"Rodolphus!" Bella screamed again, more cells racing past her vision as she noticed the small band of Death Eaters moving even further away, closer to the exit.

"Bella?" she heard a faint voice bellow.

"Rodolphus!" A few more hurried paces and she immediately recognized the bearded face of her husband.

"Bella!" he cried, surprise and confusion visible on his face. "What's going on? What's happening?"

"The Dark Lord—risen," she inarticulately panted, hastily mimicking the gestures Lucius had performed with his wand earlier to open the cell.

"Risen? Oh, Bella!" Rodolphus joyously exclaimed.

As the door to Rodolphus's cell swung open, Bella threw herself into his arms and they shared a kiss that had been fourteen years in the waiting.


	7. Victory

A/N: Just to stave off any confusion in advance, this is canon-complaint; it occurs immediately after Harry has been "killed" in Deathly Hallows.

**The Seventh Kiss**

_Victory_

For that moment the air was still, and both the breathing of the Death Eaters and the slight breeze that stirred the trees disappeared: the universe itself seemed to be focusing all of its attention on the suddenly still form of the Dark Lord.

"My lord?" Rodolphus heard his wife's voice from her location directly next to the Dark Lord. "My lord?"

In one swift motion, the Dark Lord rose from his splayed position on the ground and started barking that he did not require assistance. The relief was palpable in the air that the Dark Lord was still alive, and there was a collective exhale of relief that seemed to stir the boughs of the trees themselves. All of the gathered Death Eaters were soon leaping to their feet, impatiently waiting for the Dark Lord to finish torturing Potter's limp corpse so they could finally return to Hogwarts, a triumphant invading party.

Once the half-giant started lumbering in the direction of Hogwarts, sobbing pitifully while carrying the Boy-Who-Died's body, the other Death Eaters, antsy as always, were able to start pouring through the narrow pathways of the forest towards the site the massive castle. It seemed almost unreal—after so many months, years, even, of trying to extinguish Potter, the Dark Lord had finally succeeded.

"Excuse me, pardon me, let me through—I said let me through, Dolohov!" Rodolphus snapped, weaving his way through the already celebrating line of Death Eaters. A flash of long dark hair caught his eyes and, after shouldering his way through a few more Death Eaters who stubbornly did not want to lose their spot near the front of the procession, he grabbed his wife's hand. She jumped slightly, immediately whipping her head in his direction before she recognized him and her expression softened slightly.

"We won, Bella," he breathed, almost unable to believe his own words.

After shooting a glance towards the Dark Lord, who was several paces in front of them, she thoughtfully replied, "We still have to finish cleaning the world of filth, dispose of the few Mudbloods who have escaped us thus far and are still tarnishing the countryside. Our work isn't done yet."

"No, but with Potter gone, the Dark Lord will focus more attention on our ultimate mission of creating a world for us purebloods. And with that, it won't be long before any opposition falls, before we have a new world at our fingertips. Just think, Bella—we've won. After so many years of laboring and struggling we've won."

An almost awe-struck smile snaked its way across her face. He was right, wasn't he? The opposing side would crumble without their "legendary" poster boy to unite them, and soon everybody would realize that only the Dark Lord was worthy of leading the world. With that, a new, pure world wouldn't be far behind. "We have won, Rodolphus. We've won," she murmured the foreign-sounding words, and her eyes met his, a joyous expression lighting up her face.

A radiant smile turned up the corners of his lips and, the both of them still smiling, they kissed each other.

…

A/N: First off sorry about the discrepancy, length-wise, between this and the last few chapters; the previous chapters ended up a bit longer than I'd intended. Also, as this is the last chapter, I'd like to say thank you to everybody who has been reading; I'd love to hear from all of you, even in just a two word review!


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